Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Enlightened Eyes

Last night we were traveling to a store a few miles from our house. As we went down the road I was looking out the window and began to marvel at the wonder of our eyesight. Moving my focus from one thing to another my eyes instantaneously adjusted and refocused so that I could see. I remember one moment that wasn't the case.

I had always prided myself on my good vision. Then in my forties, my close vision began to leave me. I didn't grieve too much over that, I figured it was part of life. At least I still had great far vision! I adjusted by wearing monovision contacts -- a contact in one eye to see close up, while the other eye sees far away. That worked quite well for many years.

Then one day I went to the ophthalmologist for a routine eye exam and contact prescription. As I looked at the eye chart the nurse projected onto the wall I casually commented, "Oh, you have a new eye chart."

I'm sure she was trying to hide back a chuckle as she replied, "It isn't a new chart."

Reality had not yet sunk it, "It must be, I could read all the lines on the old chart," I said.

She put her hand on my shoulder, "It is the same chart."

Then it hit me. It was the same chart, but my eyes weren't the same. I just couldn't see far away anymore. I left with a prescription for bifocal glasses and bifocal contacts. Unfortunately, I would still need the reading glasses. This time I was unhappy.

It wasn't until I picked up my new glasses I realized how much my far vision had deteriorated. I think I drove my husband crazy that day. "Look, honey, I can read that sign!"

"Look, I can see the leaves on that tree!" Everything I had been missing for at least a year or maybe two I now announced to him. Having worn glasses since he was about eight, it dawned on me after a while that he understood the wonders of corrective vision and I kept my joy to myself.

We have other "eyes" besides those in our head. In the book of Ephesians the Apostle Paul prays for the Ephesians that the eyes of their understanding may be enlightened. This is the corrective vision of the heart we all require. We need the enlightenment which comes by way of the illumination of the Holy Spirit, the communion of fellow believers and discernment of the Scriptures in our hearts. The more these three are at work in our lives, the more we will "see" those things in our lives that we need to see, and the better we "see," the better we will live.

"The eyes of your understanding being enlightened;

that ye may know what is the hope of His calling,

and what the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints,

And what is the exceeding greatness of His power to us-ward who believe,